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Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Intelligence arrest of journalist condemned

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate condemned the arrest of the journalist Abdul Elah Haidar Shea who was arrested by the intelligence on Monday August 16th, 2010 from his house in Sana’a.

In a statement, the Syndicate said the arrest of Shea was unjustifiable and called for an immediate release of the journalist.

The syndicate expressed surprise over intimidation of a well-known journalist who works in the state-run news agency (Saba). “He could have been summoned easily,” the statement said.The syndicate held responsible the security authorities for “ kidnapping of Shea and abuses that he might be subjected to”.

The journalist Shea was arrested from his house for his statements about Al Qaeda, said the family on Monday.

A group of security men arrested the journalist Abdul Elah Haidar Shea, specializes in Al Qaeda affairs, after they stormed his house in Al Tahreer area in the Yemeni capital Sana’a.The security took Shea to an unknown place along with his laptop , mobile and personal documents.

“ About 20 soldiers surrounded our house, and a group of officers with civil clothes stormed the house while we were having Iftar (dinner) and they took my brother by force,” said Khaled Shea, the brother of the journalist.

“When I interfered to ask why they want to arrest my brother, one of them told me to keep silent or he will kill me,” the brother said.

The security men continued to search the house even after Abdul Elah was handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to unknown place, said the brother. On July 12, 2010, a group men belonging to the intelligence agency (National Security Agency) kidnapped Abdul Elah, who has good contact with Al Qaeda leaders, from a Sana’a street and released him about 10 hours later.

Abdul Elah said at the time, they security told him that his statements to media about Al Qaeda were damaging the interests of the homeland. They warned him from doing that any more.